The Descriptivists

·        Descriptive linguistics is the study and analysis of spoken languages.

·        Descriptive linguists:

a)   Begin by listening to native speakers.

b)  Gather a body of data. Research on the detailed structure of exotic languages.

c)   Analyze to identify distinctive sounds (phonemes).

d)  Knowing the function of the morphemes in the sentence enables the linguist to describe the grammar of the language being analyzed (scientific structuralism).

Ex. Individual phonemes /p/ & /b/ substitution of one or the other changes the meaning of the word. After identifying the entire inventory of sounds in a language the linguist looks at how these sounds combine to create morphemes or units of sounds that carry meaning such as: PUSH & BUSH. This is the scientific procedure of phonemics, morphology & syntax.

The linguist’s next step is to see how morphemes combine into sentences obeying both the dictionary meaning of the morpheme & the grammatical rules of the sentence such as in the sentence:

                “She pushed the bush”

          Pronoun   Transitive   Article          Noun

      (Subject)      (Verb)     (Determiner)  (Object)

·       Franz Boas:

-      The founder of the “Descriptive Linguistics” school.

-      He challenged the application of conventional methods of language study of native North American languages with no written records. He was an anthropologist.

-      He said that descriptive should describe the relationships of speech elements of words and sentences.

-      He saw grammar as a description of how human speech in a language is organized.

-      He studied the Kwakiutl (Present Canadians). 

-      One of his conclusions was that no pure race exists and no race is innately superior to any other, since idiolects of a language within one culture depends on the individual’s background.

-      Relativism i.e. no ideal language because human languages are diverse (European vs. African languages).

-      Boas saw language as the most interesting aspect of culture to study. He says in every language there are certain logical categories which must be expressed whether relevant to a particular message or not. The categories are symmetrical in different languages that are in comparison (Number, gender, tense). Now an individual learn to ignore the differences between allophones of the same phoneme in ones own language, Ex. /t/ aspirated non-aspirated. But we notice them in an alien language because they seem to change the meaning.

                                          

·       Leonard Bloomfield:

-   He worked on grouping Native American languages.

-   He was committed to the point that linguistics in an independent science.

-   He insisted on using scientific procedures in analyzing a language.

-   He based his work, especially his approach to meaning, on behavioristic principles.

-   He promoted structuralism (Language as a system with a highly organized structure).

By Mr. Tory Cantú